NOAA’S NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DECLARES HENDERSON COUNTY, N.C.,
STORMREADY

Officials
from NOAA’s National Weather Service today praised the emergency
management team in Henderson County, N.C., for completing a set of
rigorous criteria necessary to earn the distinction of being declared
StormReady.

“Henderson
County becomes the fourth county in western North Carolina to earn
the StormReady designation,” said Justin Lane, meteorologist
at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Greenville-Spartanburg,
S.C., which serves much of western North Carolina. “Through
StormReady, Henderson County will be better prepared to help protect
the lives and property of its citizens during severe weather events.”

StormReady
encourages communities to take a proactive approach to improving local
hazardous weather operations and public awareness. The nationwide
community preparedness program uses a grassroots approach to help
communities develop plans to handle local severe weather and flooding
threats. The program is voluntary, and provides communities with clear-cut
advice from a partnership between local National Weather Service offices
and state and local emergency managers. StormReady started in 1999
with seven communities in the Tulsa, Okla., area. There are now more
than 970 StormReady communities in 48 states. Henderson County is
the 36th community in North Carolina to be declared StormReady.

The
National Weather Service in Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C., presented
special StormReady signs to county emergency preparedness officials
during today’s Henderson County Board of Commissioners meeting.
The StormReady recognition will be in effect for three years, at which
time the county will go through a renewal process.

“Every
year, around 500 Americans lose their lives to severe weather and
floods,” said Brig. Gen. David
L. Johnson, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), director of the NOAA National
Weather Service. “More than 10,000 severe thunderstorms, 2,500
floods and 1,000 tornadoes impact the United States annually, and
hurricanes are a threat to the Gulf and East Coasts. Potentially deadly
weather can affect every person in the country. That’s why NOAA’s
National Weather Service developed the StormReady program”.

To
be recognized as StormReady, a community must:

Establish
a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center;

Have
multiple ways to receive severe weather warnings and forecasts and
to alert the public;

Create
a system that monitors weather conditions locally;

Promote
the importance of public readiness through community seminars;

“The
United States is the most severe weather prone region of the world,”
Lane said. “The mission of the National Weather Service is to
reduce the loss of life and property from these storms, and StormReady
helps us create better prepared communities throughout the country.”

NOAA’s
National Weather Service is the primary source of weather data, forecasts
and warnings for the United States and its territories. NOAA’s
National Weather Service operates the most advanced weather and flood
warning and forecast system in the world, helping to protect lives
and property and enhance the national economy.

The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the
U.S. Commerce Department, is dedicated to enhancing economic security
and national safety through the prediction and research of weather
and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship
of our nation’s coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging
Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working
with its federal partners and nearly 60 countries to develop a global
monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes.